Visualizing Kepler's Dream | SOMNIUM Presentation

Visualizing Kepler's Dream | A Digital Storytelling Adventure

Thursday, February 23 | 7-8pm | Free with Admission

Using computer graphics simulations, this talk illustrates the first science fiction story: Johannes Kepler's Somnium (1634). A dreamer imagines a fanciful voyage to the moon, accompanied by his bewitching mother and guided by a helpful demon. From sunrises to seasons to extraterrestrials, Kepler's narrator describes what it would be like to see the cosmos from an off-world point of view. Danny Bazo, Karl Yerkes, and Marko Peljhan will also answer questions about their piece in Making Contact: SETI Artists in Residence.

The artist team of Danny Bazo, Karl Yerkes, and Marko Peljhan, from the Systemics Lab in the Media Arts and Technology Program at UC Santa Barbara, have collaborated with NASA and SETI scientist Jon Jenkins on SOMNIUM: A SETI AIR Project, a work motivated by the Kepler Space Telescope and the search for Earth-like exoplanets.